The sign on the door that leads into Palsaik Korean BBQ, situated in a Hawthorne Boulevard strip mall, says, “8 Flavors of Pork.” The business card offers a variation on the theme, telling us there is “Pork of 8 Kind Tastes.” Even the name Palsaik means “Eight Colors.”

Phrase it as you wish, the point is clear: This is a Korean barbecue shop where pork rules.

Though there is beef on the menu, along with a sundry of side dishes, pig is king. And when you see how it’s presented, you’ll understand just how much pork rules. This is Pork Heaven.

You’ll also find the word “samgyupsap” on the window, which means literally “three-layer meat,” but usually refers to grilled pork belly, which comes with veggies and lettuce leaves to wrap the pork in. But there’s more going on at Palsaik than a single dish of pork belly. Lots more, with lots of pork to deal with.

Assuming you order one of the combination meals — the most basic of them, called the Palsaik Combo, costs $54.99, and serves two (according to the menu), though I’d argue it can serve more than that, especially if you add on the seafood pancakes, or the scorched rice — what arrives, along with the half-dozen or so small dishes of banchan (the Korean side dishes, beginning with kimchi and going on from there), is a handsome, long, narrow wooden tray, topped with eight small white plates of pork done eight ways.

Or at least, pork marinated eight ways. The way the pork is cooked is over the traditional Korean grilled called a hwaro. And since the grill tends to flame out the flavors, especially if you’re a clumsy cook given to burning things, a certain amount of caution needs to be taken.

We’re told to roast the meat from left to right, from mild ginseng flavor to intense red pepper paste (the wonderful gochujang).

On the journey in between, there’s marinated soy, rosemary, soybean paste, red wine, garlic and curry presented with appropriate annotations. We learn the soy “helps eliminate toxins and harmful substances from the body.” The soybean paste has an “anti-cancer effect.” The curry “prevents dementia and cancer.”

We also learn that pork belly is the most popular meat in Korean fare, and that it has “abundant minerals, such as vitamin B, protein, phosphorus, potassium and iron.”

Further, it’s good for maintaining “young and resilient skin.” And should be eaten, “when yellow dust blows because it walks down pollutants in lungs.” Who knew?

It’s easy to lose track of which meat is which, in the midst of the feeding frenzy that typically defines a Korean barbecue feast. And there’s more, of course: garlic and mushrooms to grill, vegetables to cook and add to the meat in the lettuce wraps, should you opt for the lettuce wraps.

Kimchi soup is steaming hot on the burners at Palsaik Korean BBQ. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)

There’s Korean corn cheese, which is somewhat inexplicably popular in Korean cooking — a casserole of corn and cheese, just as the name says — which is a match, I guess, for the cheese-fried rice.

There’s a big soup as well — a kimchi stew or a seafood soybean stew — both very good, but with so much food on the table, something of a distraction from the main event: the pork. (Though the menu suggests that, as a final course, the ramen noodles go nicely in the soup. But who has room?)

If you show up for lunch, the combos aren’t the way to go. Samgyupsap is considered a dinner dish only. Rather, there are four types of bibimbahp, the wonderful Korean rice casserole, made with a choice of veggies, pork belly, beef or Spam.

And if pork isn’t your meat of choice, there are beef combos made with prime brisket, prime rib-eye and prime boneless short ribs. The pork and the beef can also be ordered a la carte — though the restaurant will inform you that you won’t get all the side dishes or the soup — unless they’re ordered separately.

And of course, there’s soju (eight flavors), along with three Korean beers, served nice and cold. The notion of eating this meal without a beer, seems heretical, almost crazy. POB, Cass and Hite were made for samgyupsap.

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